by Akron, OH; The Akron Zips handled the Milwaukee Panthers just fine with a 105-81 win for their first game back at James A. Rhodes Arena since November 12th. Amani Lyles led the Zips with a new career-high 25 points, to go along with nine rebounds, and five assists. “It’s not easy to win a division one basketball game and we’re always thankful for the opportunity to learn from it,” head coach John Groce said following the win.
On top of Lyles, another six additional players scored in double digits proving just how deep this team really is. Evan Mahaffey finished with a nice bounce back game going for 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Shammah Scott followed up his career high in points (25) with 14 points, four rebounds, and two assists. While Tavari Johnson had his first double-double of the season going for 11 points, a new career-high 11 assists, two rebounds, and two steals.
It was an over two week road trip as Akron made an appearance on the road at Purdue before heading out to the US Virgin Islands to participate in the Paradise Jam tournament. The Zips went 2-2 on the road with losses to Purdue and then Yale in the championship game of Paradise Jam. “With the travel and holiday this week, coach gave us a lot of mental days so we just watched a lot of film and talked about our gameplan,” Lyles said about dealing with the recent road schedule. “Just being mentally prepared after the holiday and traveling out to the Virgin Islands.”
Tonight’s game started off with a 16-12 Akron lead that Lyles ignited with a quick 10 points early on. The Zips were shooting a red hot 70% to start, but Milwaukee was right there still hanging around. Lyles finished with 16 points in just the first half alone. “I know I have not been shooting a lot lately.” Lyles said on his new career high in points. “I just trust in my work. The game plan required me to shoot three’s so I’ve been working on it.”
The Panthers would continue to keep pace for sometime as they trailed just 34-26 at the 7:04 mark. But that would be until Akron outscored Milwaukee 18-13 to end the half. The Zips kept up their hot offense by shooting 63% which also included 38% from deep to come away with a 52-39 halftime lead. Chabi Barre provided some intensity off the bench as he had two blocks in his first two minutes of play. “It’s obviously tough when you have so many injuries and I did not even expect to get in the game today. I just always stay ready no matter what,” Barre said after the game.
Akron would come out of the half on a 14-3 run to really open up the game as they took a 66-45 lead by time the first media timeout of the second half rolled around. Lyles continued the heater that he was on with another quick seven points on the run. The main message at halftime was the defense, as it has been the case for much of this season’s struggles.
But Milwaukee would refuse to let the Zips continue to run away with it as they at least made an effort to not get blown out. “I thought we gave up too many good three’s,” Groce said about the defensive effort. But with 7:31 left in the second half, Akron had a 81-61 lead and they were ready themselves for one last run at a huge blowout.
The Zips would not pull away too much farther, but they did finish the game with a 24-20 advantage to come away with a 105-81 win in the end. It was a tremendous effort down the stretch as well getting seven different players scoring in double digits which was finished off by Sharron Young and Barre. Akron next hosts Bucknell on Wednesday night.
